January 2018

3 January 2018

What happens when you have just minutes to come up with a design? John Ridpath writes about the problem-solving benefits of ‘creative accidents’

‘Look at the photocopied type specimens on the table. Pick a letter “A” that you like. Draw a copy of it anywhere on your sheet of paper, using charcoal. It can be big or small, you can rotate it, you can draw it partially off the page. You have five minutes.’ Rod Judkins has just issued the first brief of ‘100 Design Projects’, a five-day course at Central Saint Martins, writes John Ridpath.

20 December 2017

Robert Hanks takes a final look at the cover designs for The Man Booker 2017 shortlist and the winner – George Saunders’ Lincoln in the Bardo

Book design can be an unlovely process – a set of negotiations to find something that satisfies the requirements of design, editorial and sales, with the last inevitably taking precedence. Along the way, art can get sidelined and the results can be garish or banal, writes Robert Hanks.

13 December 2017

Typographic artist Sam Winston explores the visual inspiration that comes from total darkness

Sam Winston’s new exhibition ‘Darkness Visible’ at London’s Southbank Centre brings the viewer into his mind through fields of text. Completed during seven days of total darkness, the dedicated corner of the National Poetry Library exposes the thoughts and experiences of someone searching for visual inspiration without any vision at all, writes Lindsay Hargrave.

27 November 2017

It’s always fun to win awards. But what do two wildly different ceremonies tell us about the state of magazine design, editing and publishing? By John L. Walters

Last week I attended two magazine awards ceremonies on two successive days. I don’t make a habit of this, but I was involved as a nominee in both the Stack Awards and those run by the BSME, the British Society of Magazine Editors, writes John L. Walters.

10 November 2017

The fifth annual Modern Magazine conference, initiated and curated by magCulture founder Jeremy Leslie, took place this year at London’s Conway Hall. The speaker line-up reflected a wide array of approaches to publishing presented by art directors and editors who head up magazines young and old – from MigrantJournal (about to release issue three) to Japanese magazine Popeye, founded in 1976, writes Sarah Snaith.